Give your out-of-print work a second life on the Victorian Web

Why you should share your book with readers of the Victorian Web?
A web version of your book will

give it a new new life

permit access to readers, particularly graduate students and teachers outside North America and UK who otherwise would never encounter it

have it participate in an experiment in what happens to scholarly writing on the Internet.

Who owns my book?
You do, of course, and you retain copyright.

What if a publisher wants to put my book it back in print?
You can do so. In 2014 Taylor & Francis/Routledge has put two of my books — Victorian Types (1980) and Images of Crisis (1982) —back in print even though they relinquished the copyright to me years ago and the books have been available on the Victorian Web for more than a decade.

What I Have to Do?

Obtain a copy of a letter from your original publisher stating they've returned copyright to you; it'll remain with you incidentally. (Almost all book contracts have a clause that states once a book's been out of print for 6 months, the publisher must either put it back in print at your request or return the copyright to you. The return of copyright takes the form of a simple letter.)

Send a letter or e-mail stating you'd like the specific work included in the Victorian Web.

Can I add to the book or modify it in any way?. Yes, if you want to add a forward, additional illustrations, longer annotations, append later articles, that's fine and welcome but not necessary.

Do I have to do anything else? No, though if you have a copy of the book in digital form that saves us a lot of time. Otherwise, we have to scan it from either a copy you provide or one we obtain from a university library.

If sharing your book with the Victorian Web seems like a good idea, send e-mail to the webmaster and editor-in-chief: